Synthetic smells, robots and microguêpes … Six innovations for greener agriculture

“Be beautiful and shut up.” Nathalie Nesi sums up a pictorial formula which has long presided over the fate of plants watered with pesticides in the fields. But since the National Institute of Agronomic Research (INRAE) has bet on varietal selection, DNA analyzes and biological regulation, the researcher understood all the interest of working with a microscope rather than a sprayer to protect the cultures of insects and diseases. When we meet the director of the Institute of Genetics (IGEPP) on the experimental plots of INRAE ​​at the RHEU (Ille-et-Vilaine), she sums up her new creed: “To the plants to manage and be creative to defend yourself alone. »»